Opposites Atract
by AngelOfDusk
Summary: Merlin is a genius prodigy, who got in to oxford at the age of 11, with a dark past, Gwaine, however is the complete opposite: he's got bad grades, a good family and is a flirty drunk but can these to opposite fall in love with each other? And can Gwaine bring Merlin out of his isolated life? Merlin/Gwaine, no magic
1. Chapter 1

**hi this is just an idea that popped in to my head while i was reading some merwaine fics, so i decided to write it**

**parings: merlin/gwaine, hints of arthur/gwen**

**disclamer: i own nothing but the plot and the oc's**

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><p><span>Chapter 1:<span>

A Day In The Life Of

Merlin And Gwaine

Student scratched away on their exercises books as the teacher carried on speaking.

The students all looked between the ages 18-25 however there is always an exception to the rule.

Right at the back of the class was a young boy: he was slim, just over 5'10" and young, very young, considering where he was, he couldn't be much over 14, if that. He was ghostly pale with pale with height cheek bones, large ears that seemed to fit his face perfectly and denim blue eyes that had a hit of wariness in them that didn't fit with his young face, as if he had seen to many things.

His messy raven black hair was pinned down by his sleek duke blue and jet black compact glasses. Left ear had orbital piercing which held an engraved silver ear cuff.

His left hand held a silver fountain pen and was scratching away at the page.

"Merlin, could you tell me the answer to the question on the board please?" the teachers said.

The boy glanced at the board where the question:

_The element rubidium exists as the isotopes Rb and 86Rb._

_Q: how many protons are in an atom of the isotope Rb? _

was and answered it with ease.

"37" Merlin answered offhandedly in less than 10 seconds.

"Good well done" the teacher said before the bell when "well that all we have time for today I'll see you tomorrow"

Merlin packed up his stuff twice as fast as everyone else and rushed out of the oxford university building but not fast enough. Just outside the university grounds was 4 boys around the age of eighteen, they were obviously waiting for Merlin.

"Hey, where do you think you're going, freak?" one of them asked.

"Yeah, aren't you supposed to be a genius or something? So why didn't you know that no matter how fast you get out of lessons we'll always be waiting for you?" another said before shoving him into the closest alleyway, blocking his way out.

The tallest boy shove a pile full of books into Merlin's hands before saying "you know the drill, you're going to do our assignments for us and make us revision note and get us top marks, got it?"

This sort of thing was normal for Merlin, is always happened every Thursday when they were given assignments and each time these 4 boys (Jason, Tyler, Liam and Blaine) would make him do their assignments.

"Well" the tallest one – Jason – said.

"Why don't you do it yourself?" Merlin scoffed quietly.

That was the think about Merlin he was a very quiet person, well at least in the time that they'd known him, he had been but he was never slow with come backs.

Suddenly Tyler – the most muscular – kicked him in the shin making Merlin fall to his knees.

"Why must you always be so difficult, Merlin?" Jason said as the other 3 boys continued to punch and kick him but Merlin refused to scream regardless of how much it hurt.

"Have you changed your mind, yet?" Jason asked peering down at Merlin who lying on the ground.

"Sod off" Merlin said quietly.

"Very well, I didn't want to do this but…" Jason trailed of before taking Merlin's glasses, much to his surprise, and dropped them on the ground before lifting his foot ready to stamp it.

Merlin did necessarily need to wear his glasses all the time but if he tried reading without them then all he would see is smudges on a piece of paper and in a university like this, that wasn't much good.

"Hey, stop I need those" Merlin said as he tried to reach for his glasses but the three boys were holding him down pretty tight.

"So are you gonna do as we say?" Jason asked once more.

Merlin opened his mouth to say 'fine just don't break my glasses' but another voice filled the alleyway saying "hey, what do you think you're doing? Stop it"

#########################################################

Oxford high school was the best secondary school around; actually it was the only secondary school around unless you wanted to go to St. Gregory's which was, in practically everyone's opinion, horrible.

The school it's self was excellent it had 10.5 acres of land, many tennis and football courts/fields and a swimming pool… the only down side was some of the pupils.

The was many trouble makers in the school the worst being Gwaine Harrison, the boy in question was currently making funny faces behind the head teacher back in the courtyard.

Gwaine was pretty muscular from going to the gym every week and was about 6 foot which was the right sort of height for a fifteen-year-old. He had a light tan from all his times abroad which seemed to compliment his face and chocolate brown eyes perfectly.

Like Merlin, Gwaine also had a piercing but his was a standard lobe piercing which held a silver and diamond stud.

Gwaine was commonly known as the trouble maker of the school but never did anything that could get him expelled he was also known as a flirt.

Gwaine and the rest of the 'knights' (Arthur, Elyan, Leon, Lancelot and Percival) as they were nicknamed plus Gwen were eating in the courtyard discussing where they were going for college.

"How about you, Arthur?" Elyan asked the blond.

"Well I'm going to spend a year at St. Catherine's College then go to Oxford" Arthur said though there was a little bit of doubt.

"Only one year in college? How come? I thought you loved that place" Leon said.

"yeah well, actually in was my father's idea, he says he'll keep paying for my literature courses if I do" Arthur sighed, he really did like St. Catherine's College.

Arthur's father, Uther, was the CEO of a large company, The Pendragon Industries, with many shareholders in other companies and could easily pay Arthur's way through his whole life but his relationship with his son wasn't the best.

About 2 years ago Arthur expressed the desired to become a writer contradictory to his father's wishes for him to become the next CEO of the company however after a long discussion – argument – they compromised.

Uther said he'd let Arthur become a writer if he became the next CEO too, as many writers had another job as wel, however Arthur didn't complete agree so they settled for Leon, the son of one of Uther's friend, and Arthur to become joint CEOs; partners essentially and Leon was all for it.

"Why did he say that? I mean there must be some reason for it" Lancelot asked.

"I'm supposed to befriend this child prodigy, according to my father he's a total genius, he got in to college at the age of six then went to Oxford University at the age of 11, it was supposed to be when he was ten but they said he had to wait another year cause he was to young" Arthur explained.

"When to college at the age of six?" Gwaine exclaimed "man, you've got your work cut out for your Arthur, 'cause there's no way is someone like that gonna let someone like you anywhere near him"

"What does that mean?" Arthur asked.

"Well he's a geek, isn't he? That means that he's probably got like a little group of geek friends meaning that if you wanna be friends with him then your gonna have to become a geek and I don't see that happening" Gwaine said not knowing how wrong he was.

"Wait why does your father want you to befriend his?" Gwen asked before Gwaine could continue.

"My father is trying to get him to join the company but he has declined the offer every time" Arthur explained "so he wants me to convince him"

The rest of the school day went pretty smoothly for Gwaine and the knights but that was before the end of school.

Gwaine was walking home, which was near Oxford University, when something caught his eye.

Just outside the entrance to the university were 4 students that was obviously picking on a younger boy, Gwaine thought nothing of it and just carried on walking, that was until the boy got shoved into an alleyway.

Gwaine watched from afar for a little bit deciding what to do but he could hear the taller one say "you know the drill, you're going to do our assignments for us and make us revision note and get us top marks, got it?"

Gwaine was immediately confused; why would 4 university students want a 14-year-old, who wasn't even old enough to go to college, to do their work for them?

The younger boy obviously said something but it was to quite to hear and things go hostile; the boys started beating the kid up and Gwaine decided that it was time to intervene.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Stop it" he said.

The 4 boys turned around startled before Jason said "listen kid, we don't want any trouble just leave and no one gets hurt"

"Fat chance" Gwaine scoffed.

"Well, it's your funeral" Jason said before signalling Tyler and Liam to fight him.

Having sparred with Arthur once a week Gwaine won the fight with ease leaving the two university students lying on the ground; noses bloody, body bruised and unconscious.

Jason and Tyler were surprised at Gwaine's strength and in a moment of fear, fled, leaving Merlin and Gwaine alone in the alleyway.

"thanks" Merlin muttered lifting himself up from the floor wincing all the while however his bruised leg couldn't hold him and he collapsed, thankfully though Gwaine caught him and lowered him to the ground.

"Hey, are you okay?" Gwaine asked, concerned, as he picked up Merlin's glasses and gave them to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Merlin assured him but the way he winced every time he moved told Gwaine he was lying.

"Hey, why do I take you to my house we can patch you up there" Gwaine suggested.

"Are you sure? I don't what to impose" Merlin said.

"Positive" Gwaine guaranteed.

"Ok then" Merlin said "I'm Merlin by the way"

"I'm Gwaine"

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><p><strong>so what did you think? <strong>

**please tell me**

_**first Merwaine fic ever**_


	2. Chapter 2

**God i didn't think any one would really like this 'cause merwaine isn't the most popular merlin ship around so thank you for reading, favoring, following and everything else.**

**disclaimer: i own nothing but the plot and the oc's**

**NOTE: 24 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS :)**

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

The sun shone down on the white walled two storey house, reflecting of the 3 bay windows and the sliding glass door on the upstairs balcony.

They entered the house with Gwaine supporting Merlin due to the fact that his leg still hurt. It wasn't a very big house, on the outside was a small, lush yawn with little shrubbery. They walked inside and Merlin took notice of Gwaine's small living room to his right. There was a gaming system set up with several Xbox games and movies lined up in a shelf next to the flat screen TV. The sofa is centred around this all and is large enough to fit three or four people.

Walking past the living area, to their right was a kitchen and dining area. It wasn't much, just a two- door refrigerator and sink, pantries and drawers and a table with a couple of chairs.

Standing over the counter, back to Gwaine and Merlin, was a woman in about her early 30's, she had the same colour hair as Gwaine that fell just below her shoulder blades. She was wearing a royal blue t-shirt with long sleeves that had been rolled up and black trousers.

Merlin notice Gwaine become tense and increase the effort to be quite. The two teenagers managed to seek passed the door without alerting the woman but just as they were about to ascended up the stairs Gwaine knocked a remote of the cabinet making in fall to the ground with a large thump.

"Gwaine is that you?" the woman's voice asked.

"Yeah, mom" Gwaine called back, sheepishly.

"Where have you been? You were supposed to be back in 30 minutes ago" the woman said a she walked out of the kitchen.

"Who's this?" she asked gesturing to Merlin.

"Oh, mom this is Merlin and Merlin this is mom" Gwaine introduced before Gwaine's mom noticed Merlin's bruises and started making a fuss.

"oh my god what happened to you? Are you ok? Do you need an ice pack?" she nagged him as Gwaine led Merlin back into the front room and sat him down on the couch.

"Gwaine, go get the first aid kit" she order her son.

While Gwaine was away his mom checked over Merlin injuries as he winced every time she touched one but other than that he was quiet.

"Here" Gwaine said, passing his mom the first aid kit.

Gwaine's mom spent the next 15 minutes patching up Merlin and throughout all that time he never said a word not even when Gwaine started asked questioned the only think he did was occasionally shake or nod his head meaning no or yes.

"You don't talk much do you?" Gwaine asked finally, when his mom left leaving the two boys alone.

"Sorry" Merlin said quietly.

"Don't be sorry, my friend Percival doesn't say much ever but he's a great friend" Gwaine said.

"Oh, where do you go to school anyway?" Merlin asked not knowing that there were only two secondary schools around because he only spent a month at one.

"Oxford high school, you?" Gwaine asked.

Merlin froze, not knowing what to say, he could either say that he went to university or lie and say he went to a different secondary school, both of which he didn't want to do.

"well, obviously you go to St. Gregory's, cause that the only other school around" Gwaine answered for him, not knowing how wrong he was.

Merlin just smiled, letting Gwaine think that he was right.

"So how old are you?" Gwaine asked "I'm 15"

"14" Merlin answered, happy to be talking to someone around his own age.

"Good for you that means you've got another year to figure out what college you want to go to" Gwaine said patting him on the back.

"uh, yeah, what college are you planning to go to an way?" Merlin asked eager to draw the attention away from himself.

"I have no idea" Gwaine said honestly.

"well, Balliol College is pretty good so it St. Catherine's" Merlin said without thinking, remembering when he went around for a tour at both schools and spent 4 years at St. Catherine's.

"And how would you know that?" Gwaine inquired.

"Well, that's what I heard and I've been around them, preparing for the future you know" Merlin lied, well the part about having gone around both the colleges were true but the rest was a lie.

"Hey, do you want a game?" Gwaine asked gesturing to Xbox 630 in front of them.

"Um, sure I guess" Merlin said but in truth he really didn't want to play, he _hated_ video games, but he didn't want to seem ungrateful.

"So _Call Of Duty_ or F1 2014?" Gwaine asked totally baffling Merlin.

"Well, uh, I've never actually played ever of them" Merlin confessed.

"What?" Gwaine said "how could you not have played them? What kind of 14-year-old are you?"

_'A genius that got in to college at the age of 6' _Merlin thought before shrugging.

"Never mind I'll teach you" Gwaine said before sliding _The Call Of Duty_ disc into the Xbox.

"Basically you have to shoot the enemies and help your allies" Gwaine explained before showing Merlin what all of the buttons did.

30 minutes and 6 games later the score stood at Merlin, 5, Gwaine, 1. The competition started when Merlin began thrashing Gwaine on every mode he put it on because of his quick reflexes.

"Are you sure this is your first time playing?" Gwaine asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Yeah, I've just go good reflexes" Merlin said sheepishly and if he was honest he was enjoying himself to and it wasn't playing the game he liked it was just being around Gwaine.

Suddenly Gwaine noticed the time displayed at the bottom of the screen before saying.

"Bloody hell, 4:15, you've been here an hour man, won't your parents be worried?" Gwaine asked.

Merlin winced slightly at the word parents, luckily Gwaine didn't notice, before saying "yeah, I probably should go"

"Hey wait give your phone number and we can meet up some time" Gwaine say.

"Sure" Merlin said giving out his iPhone 5 as Gwaine got out his iPhone 4s, muttering 'nice phone', before they exchanged numbers.

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><p><strong>so what do you think? good? bad? love it? hate it?<strong>

**please tell me, i'm losing my mind not knowing **

**P.S I have not thought of a name for Gwaine's mum, any suggestions? **

**NOTE: 24 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS**


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